Ramsey Cortez

Name: Ramsey Cortez

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Grade: 12

School: George Hunter High School

Hobbies and Interests: Piano, electronica music, R&B, and rap, fashion, makeup and hairdressing, gossip, church and bible study, basketball

Appearance:  Ramsey is 5'11" and weighs 175 lb. He is tone and muscular, with broad shoulders and defined pectorals. Due to his heritage his skin tone is olive and slightly darker than siblings due to tanning. He has the occasional outbreak of clusters of acne over his chin, every few months. His face is slightly long, his cheekbones prominent, and he has a long and sharp chin. He has a normal sized nose, slightly button shape with a narrow bridge. His lips are a bit thick, and slightly dark relative to his complexion. His hair is dark and naturally slightly curly. He wears it with some top volume, and has grown it so it messily cover his ears and temples. He speaks with a neutral accent, his voice is slightly tough, but slightly high in octave.

He wears simple clothes, tees and jeans, but he has a good sense of fit and silhouette. He sometimes wears tight shirts to show off his upper body. Sometimes he wears womens-cut shirts, for this reason, along with simple appreciation of women's fashion. He's known for typically going shirtless when he can get away with it. He doesn't often wear accessories due to cost, but he does have an ear pierced with a simple faux gold stud, and likes to wear snapbacks occasionally.

On the day of the abduction he was wearing a loose and slightly oversized white tee with black thin stripes horizontal over the chest. This on top of a thin sleeveless white undershirt; along with fitted black denim jeans. His shoes were a pair of white knockoff Yeezy's, and on his head was a black snapback with the Wu-Tang logo on it in yellow.

Biography: Ramsey was born on December 21st, 1999. He is the second child born to the Cortez family, behind his one year older sister Angie, and ahead of younger sisters Maya (15), Aimee (14), and Flora (12). The family is Chattanooga native and has never moved from their first home. From a young age Ramsey's conservative parents, Karen and Phillip, raised him with a traditional outlook on life. Karen was a housewife and Phillip worked as a power plant technician. From an early age gender role stereotypes were enforced. Family and church were most important of all, and from a young age Ramsey was taught to help his father and grandfather around the house. This was important for the family, as they were low-income and thus a D.I.Y. outlook was important. Ramsey was something of a quiet child, disciplined and dutiful to his teachers in preschool and on. Ramsey's tendencies towards being respectful meant he was a darling in church, and often held up to his more rambunctious elder sister as an example.

In Ramsey's first years of formal education his parents bought Angie a piano and since he was old enough he was also allowed to join the lessons. His parents didn't have the money to pay for both children's lessons, but their kindly teacher Mr. Dwyer would allow him to sit in and receive lessons for free from time-to-time. Ramsey valued these rare opportunities, as he thought being a pianist was cool and he dreamed of being part of an ensemble someday. He learned at the same clip as his sister due to his stubborn determination and attentiveness, and the two bonded over their lessons. They are the only two piano players in the family, splitting time on the keyboard. Ramsey has tried to teach the younger girls in the family, but they are typically uninterested.

Angie's issues in elementary school warped Ramsey's experience somewhat. She picked fights with teachers and had bad grades. He was sometimes avoided by or bullied by peers who associated him with his elder sister's more violent and negative behaviors. He helped her in the limited ways he knew how, especially when her ADHD diagnosis was made, and he prayed for her. He found that he preferred time in Sunday School to his actual elementary school. He had mixed gender friend groups and enjoyed playing soccer and basketball with them after hours, being a sporty sort.

By the third grade Ramsey had a few close friends in elementary school, usually a quiet sort of crowd, separate from his siblings as they hung out together in a group with younger students, though he still met them in school regularly. His friends at the time listened to rap and crunk, and were wannabe breakdancers. Ramsey wasn't particularly interested in dancing but still wanted to fit in and developed a similar taste in music due to exposure from his friends. Ramsey was especially drawn in by the catchy beats, powerful lyrics, and fashion of rappers from the mid-2000s such as The Game, T.I., and Young Jeezy. He always felt uncomfortable with songs that demeaned women or relied on other shock value that clashed with his spirituality along with the values instilled in him by his parents and family, so he only actively listened to more safe songs and just played along when his friends talked about or listened to more risqué works. He had a year long phase of practicing rap, though his sister and parent's judgements weaned him off those particular ambitions. By means of easy crossover he also got into more smooth genres of R&B, like quiet storm and new jack swing, which were to his parent's tastes; he and his father would play those sorts of tunes while working around the house.

Ramsey's elementary school days were easy and spent between school, his friends, church, and his family. He also continued to regularly keep up with his piano practice, and he appeared in a few of Angie's piano recital videos. He was close with all of the siblings, splitting family duties with Angie, babysitting, household chores, repair projects,and so on. With help from childhood sports, he would hit his puberty years athletic and strong.

By his second year of middle school Ramsey enjoyed a fair amount of popularity like his sister did, with attention from girls in particular. He was a fairly common crush target due to his budding handsome appearance and soft-spoken, reliable and loyal nature. He was invited to the occasional party. He dated a girl or two, and had his first kiss, though he was relatively unmoved by hitting these milestones in his life. He found it somewhat easier to be friends with girls, starting at this time in his life. Their interests merely aligned with his more, he liked being more casually intimate and open with his feelings. He developed a penchant for gossip, and liked "bitching out" with his girls between classes.

At home, Ramsey's sisters also hitting puberty all one after the other in a short period of time gave him plenty of further awkward teen girlfriends to be had, and since all of the Cortez children went to the same school one after the other their conversations tended to also be gossip heavy as they shared the same peers and teachers. Ramsey learned about makeup and hair, first through passive osmosis, then through hands-on study as he was sometimes recruited to be a helping hand. His appreciation for women's fashion grew, though he was frustrated by a lack of avenue of expression, as he was hesitant to open up about the interest to his female friends outside of the house.

In his first year in George Hunter High, Ramsey elected to tryout for the junior varsity basketball team, as his interest in sports was somewhat diminished, but he had social interest in staying with a team. He put up a solid performance and was put on the team. He experienced a renaissance in interest due to making new, good friends and having an inspiring coach, he worked hard to improve himself for the team, driven less by personal competition and more by the need to not let his friends down. The price of being on the team was mostly covered by the school, though his gear is poor quality and he skips on some training due to home duties, further devaluing him as a player. He eventually became varsity, but he rotates on and off the bench. He is aware that he is not starter material but keeps a strict practice regimen despite the lack of scholarship opportunities. His mother has criticized him for what she perceives as a waste of time, but his father approves of his athleticism and has his back on this hobby.

Ramsey also shied away from his former popularity and party-goer status in high school, preferring quieter friends and sometimes time to himself to listen to music. Around the house he became somewhat involved in his sister Angie's budding interests in music production and recording by collaborating with her with his own pianist skills. He couldn't devote much time to it between his school and home commitments, but free time was often spent with his sisters. He developed a similar interest in electronica genres that she had through exposure, especially since rap and EDM had a brief period of mainstream crossover around this time in his life. It was rap that would ultimately be more important, however, as Ramsey's tastes in high school expanded to include tastes in the explosion of Soundcloud rap and the new names that came with that scene. They also inspired his fashion, and though Ramsey obviously cannot afford them he does have an interest in following designer names and up-to-date runway fashion just for the aesthetics.

Around his Sophomore year Philip began training him with the expectation that he'd go to trade school as Ramsey's grades were solid but they doubted they could afford college. Since at least two of Ramsey's younger sisters- Aimee and Flora- showed more potential as academics Ramsey agreed that for the good of the family it would be best that he got a trade job to help get the sisters through college, he began shadowing his father at his own job as an power plant operations technician.

His sisters were somewhat annoyed on his behalf, by this point Ramsey's talent and passion for makeup and fashion had made themselves pretty apparent, his thrifty but cutting-edge taste was often referred to by his younger sisters when trying to update their wardrobes. They insisted he be more rebellious and proactive, but he remained dutiful to what he felt was best for his family, though over time the pressure would begin to mount. Ramsey became very zealous about his church duties around this time, using spiritual comfort to alleviate the difficult turn in his life, but things would only further devolve as time passed.

The summer between his Sophomore and Junior years Ramsey had been invited to a study group in a shared class with Emily Sharp. He found himself drawn to her life story, at once respecting and pitying her, and somewhere along the line of their budding friendship he mistook his emotions for a crush and asked her out. They formed a strong romance, deep and intimate, and the two trusted one another dearly. But Ramsey was not physically attracted to Emily, he loved her only as a friend and kindred soul, and attempts at physical intimacy fizzled out and stalled, putting strain on the relationship.

Ramsey had growing reason to suspect his sexuality, between awkward encounters in the locker rooms after practice and his infatuation with certain male models. He was on some level willing to accept the mounting evidence that he was homosexual, it didn't initially bother him. Where the problems for him came was in how his newfound identity massively complicated his relationships with Emily, his parents, and perhaps most importantly his church. Between Junior and Senior year Ramsey enlisted Angie's help in probing his parents, their homophobic views became fairly clear, and Ramsey resolved that he had to go about his coming out smarter, staying in the closet for a few years to save money and move out, but this didn't sit well with his family-oriented mentality.

Furthermore, Ramsey broke up with Emily and confessed his sexuality. The two remain friends, but perhaps not healthy ones, as each's baggage became toxic to the other. Ramsey couldn't handle Emily's problems on top of his own, much as he tried, and the inverse was true, the more each of them tried the more they hurt the other. Neither has yet to quite let go.

Ramsey, finally, has been firmly questioning his spirituality, which is a massive existential shock that has him at times feeling dead inside. He continues to fervently attend church and duties, he even begun assisting in Sunday School, but he feels like a fraud and disconnected from his former refuge and sanctuary. The pileup of all the changes he underwent in the last year of his life have forced Ramsey to cope however he knows. Friends have noted Ramsey has become more toxic, his gossip mongering turning mean spirited. He has started going to parties again regularly, perhaps seeking companions even as he has to keep his mouth shut, deep in the closet as he is. He adheres strictly to his father's plan for his moving on to trade school, but stresses over how he will balance all his responsibilities while keeping up appearances at home.

Advantages: Ramsey is athletically balanced, with training from both school sports and from home duties giving him strong body and endurance. Ramsey is used to being quiet and putting off the appearance of being loyal and dutiful, which may provide him an edge in projecting appearances on island. He has a cool head and may be able to stay relatively calm even with the stress of the game, allowing him to carefully consider his actions with minimal sloppy mistakes.

Disadvantages: Ramsey lacks actual mental ambition and is used to heavily doubting himself without external direction, meaning he will likely be aimless in developing a plan of survival. Ramsey is fundamentally spiritual: charitable and altruistic with a dislike of directly starting fights, so his willingness to take survival into his own hands may falter. His reputation as a known gossip may harm his ability to make alliances, especially with those who had been targets of his in the past.

Designated Number: Male Student No. 67

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Designated Weapon: 40 lb. bag of Lucky Charms marshmallows

Conclusion: Follow the rainbow, B067. It's the only chance you've got at stumbling into success. - Shamino Warhen

'The above biography is as written by Jilly. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Jilly

Kills: None

Killed By: Angie Cortez

Collected Weapons: 40 lb. bag of Lucky Charms marshmallows (assigned weapon, discarded)

Allies: Mercy Ames, Mike Brown, Angie Cortez

Enemies: 

Mid-game Evaluation: 

Post-Game Evaluation: 

Memorable Quotes:

Threads
Below is a list of threads containing Ramsey, in chronological order.

The Past: V7 Pregame: The Trip: V7:
 * Freestyle Friday
 * gonna take my horse to the old town road
 * 423-892-1261
 * Go About Your Business
 * Milk Quest
 * Sugar, We're Going Down!
 * They're Magically Delicious!
 * Son of Robot
 * Unicorn on the Gallows
 * re: re: fwd: re: holy.god@heavens.net
 * Bells of War
 * I'm only satisfied by the finer things in life like Rodarte and Margiela and making boys cry

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Ramsey Cortez. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * Ramsey's great. I've talked a few times about how I often have mixed feelings regarding adoptions, but I would say that without a doubt Ramsey is one of the strongest adoptees of V7. Some of this, I think, may be down to the fact that he has another PC as a sibling (and thus a strong grounding of expectations and someone to help with family dynamics and such), but mostly Jilly deserves credit for having an extremely deft hand with voice and narrative. I also really appreciate that the hand-over happened while Pregame was still ongoing, allowing Ramsey to have a few establishing threads of normalcy under his new management, including one I'm very fond of involving a bike accident and some milk. Both Jilly and original handler, Cicada, do a great job giving Ramsey a strong voice and making him feel like an actual teen, one with some bravado and attitude but also a very good heart.

In-game, Ramsey is further helped by the cartoonishly huge sack of marshmallows he's assigned, one of the single best quasi-joke weapons SOTF has ever seen. For a handler and a character who already have a knack for humor, this becomes a gilded invitation to freestyle like crazy, and it makes Ramsey one of the most distinct voices in a crowded, chaotic thread even though he doesn't actually do an incredible amount. Jilly wisely emphasizes the sheer physical absurdity of forty pounds of breakfast cereal components, while at the same time spreading the love to others, offering them something fun and unique to react to. It's great, and it elevates everyone.

Ramsey keeps doing his thing in the next thread, and it works, though the thread as a whole becomes more of a lead-in to the main event and the pacing definitely flags at a place or two. But come Mercy's death thread, Ramsey is back in full form, and once again pulls some major duty for the rest of the scene. Kelly's plot targets Mercy most of all, but has plenty of indiscriminate collateral damage, and Ramsey is among that number, hit second hardest. His narrative pivots from this point on masterfully, abandoning the marshmallows almost symbolically as the humor largely falls away, seen off by a metaphorical letter to God that is a bittersweet farewell to the days of fun and jokes.

The rest of Ramsey's story is him slowly dying and then more quickly dying. It is by and large great stuff, and Ramsey himself is a highlight. That said, one point of criticism I would level towards it is that Mike's unfortunate disappearance from the plot is kind of awkwardly handled even on the part of those who remain; where a pre-arsenic Ramsey would've probably smoothed this over, here Mike kind of slides from just-stepped-out-for-a-second to not-coming-back in this implicit way without the narrative ever really fully deciding why; it feels like a small out-of-character intrusion. But that's such a minor quibble with what is a fantastic, wrenching, and at least to me at the time unexpected death. It's a moment of tragic and brutal realism, and a moment of narrative ambiguity that echoes and haunts not only Angie but others who care about Ramsey.

Ramsey's a pretty quick read, but boy oh boy do I recommend him. He's funny, snappy, and yet has great emotional resonance, and he toys with the format in a handful of ways and always finds success with it. He shows that you can go out early and still have a complete, satisfying arc, and he leaves behind him multiple legacies, in the emotional impact he has on others and in the scattered marshmallows that people will probably still be picking out from between their toes in the very last post of Endgame. - MurderWeasel